So, I'm not new, I just haven't been around for a few years, navy stuff, being out to sea...away from my smokin' pro.

I am now in Colorado, out of the service, going to Johnson and Wales to study Culinary arts Food Service Management. So far, I'm loving every minute of it and I have gotten to try a lot of cool stuff. Volunteer opportunities are all over the place, I got to work at the Great American Beer Festival last October, met some awesome chefs and tried more beer than one might imagine (there were over 10,000 beers to sample). I went to Vail for the Cochon 555 competition and met more great chefs. Cochon 555 is a cooking contest that takes 5 chefs from a region and they each get a heritage breed pig to do whatever they want with. the winner will end up going to Grand Cochon held in Aspen at the Food and Wine Classic in June (I fully intend to go to that too).

With all this new activity, I haven't been able to get much smoking done, however, with summder nigh, this will change.

Yeah, welcome back and thanks for the service. X-Army myself, but have some Navy buddies <grin>. Yep, things have changed but I remember that adage....'the only thing constant is change'. Congrats on the school...J&W is one of the best.....good luck with all that.....Willie